


Rivers of Spring

by PandoraTheExplorer



Series: Month of Drabbles Challenge 2018 [11]
Category: New Dangan Ronpa V3: Everyone's New Semester of Killing
Genre: Angst, Canon Compliant, Character Study, F/M, New Dangan Ronpa V3 Spoilers, shuichi third wheels
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-21
Updated: 2018-09-21
Packaged: 2019-07-15 08:28:05
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,462
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16059338
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PandoraTheExplorer/pseuds/PandoraTheExplorer
Summary: Momota Kaito and his feelings on Harukawa Maki throughout the killing game.





	Rivers of Spring

**Author's Note:**

> Day 13 of my 2018 Month of Drabbles Challenge.

Momota Kaito’s grandparents have told him many times before that a real man protected the people around them. Momota lived his life by that rule. He would protect those who were weak-be it mentally or physically. The world was not perfect, which meant it needed Momota Kaito, a real man, to make it perfect. It was going to be hard, but he was determined. After all, the impossible is possible. All he had to do was make it so.

~

Harukawa Maki is an enigma; Kaito decides when he first meets her. She insists that she’s the Ultimate Child Caregiver and yet insists that she be rude to everyone she meets. He doesn’t have much time to ponder this, because a robot bear pops out and announces a killing game. He decides that when all of them get out of this school, he would have more time to solve the puzzle that is Harukawa.

~

Amami lies sprawled on the library floor and Akamatsu hangs on top of a piano. Kaito realizes that he won’t be getting out of this school for a long time. There is no use in waiting. Kaito punches Saihara in the face for not daring to even say something to Monokuma. From now on, he had to protect all of his classmates-starting with the weakest of them all.

Harukawa gets a research lab to call her own. He knocks on the giant crimson door curiously one day and an eye of a similar shade peeks out. She tells him not to come back again and slams the door in him face.

~

Hoshi is eaten by fish and Kaito stands at his podium, Harukawa two spots away. Oma presses at him to prove his innocence by proving Harukawa’s crime. He refuses.

“I believe in Harukawa,” Kaito says, and realizes that he actually means it. This girl, who has been nothing but rude to him and the others, who he knows almost nothing about, has somehow gained his trust without him even realizing it. 

Harukawa gives him an incredulous look. Kaito decides that he needs to prove his own innocence-but he also has to prove Harukawa’s. After all, isn’t Harukawa just another person for him to protect?

Tojo climbs up a spiked rope and falls to her death. On everyone’s way out of the trial grounds, Oma announces that Harukawa Maki was not the Ultimate Child Caregiver as she claimed. Rather, she was the Ultimate Assassin.

Kaito expects to feel disgust-how could someone kill so many people that she makes a talent out of it? He expects to be wary of Harukawa, or fearful of her. Instead, he’s surprised that his trust in this girl hasn’t wavered. The only thing that was new was a newfound curiosity.

~

He invites Harukawa to training with him and Shuichi. She does better on her first day than Kaito expects-way better than Shuichi did. Harukawa insists that the training is stupid and brushes Kaito off yet again when he tries to be friendly.

“What are you afraid of?” Kaito asks her. Harukawa doesn’t give a straight answer. That was to be expected. Everyone has their own fears. Shuichi is afraid of the truth. Kaito is afraid of losing peoples’ faith in him. Harukawa, it seems, is afraid of what’s beyond the walls that she’s built around herself. Kaito’s job is to help her overcome that fear-it was the best way to protect her like a real man would.

~

Later, Yonaga suggests bringing a dead classmate back to life and Kaito shuts himself in his room. Harukawa-now Harumaki, much to her displeasure, visits. At first she just argues with him to get him to do training again. After a while, she stays and they talk-mostly of unimportant stuff like Shinguji’s creepy mask or Iruma’s most questionable invention-until Shuichi shows up.

As Harumaki and Shuichi head out to train, Kaito wonders about the pang of disappointment he feels. Maybe he just wants Harumaki to protect him from the ghosts. That’s ridiculous. Kaito should be the one protecting her, not the other way around.

~

Yonaga lies in the middle of four wax dolls strung from the ceiling. Chabashira is curled up in a circle of salt. Shirogane suggests ghosts may have been the cause and Kaito feels sick to his stomach. He grabs Harumaki and she punches him in the face-he doesn’t know what he expected.

A spike of pain embeds itself in his chest and he rushes from the darkened room that holds Chabashira’s body to vomit. Blood comes out of his mouth instead. Kaito stares at the blood in the toilet for a few minutes, dumbfounded, and shakes his head. He refuses to believe this. He thought the reason he’s been feeling sick was because of the ghosts. The blood must just be a side effect.

After Shinguji is boiled alive, Harumaki and Shuichi leave Kaito be and more blood spurts from his mouth. Kaito trembles at the mess of pink on his hand. He can’t die yet. He has to get to space. He needs to get out of this school.

But…if he gets out of this school, what would become of the others? Of Shuichi? Of Harumaki? Kaito lies on the top of the dorms and stares at the stars for a long time. He tells himself that, if he could protect his friends, just watching the stars would be enough. It was a good philosophy. Now he just has to accept it.

~

Momota Kaito decides that he is in love a night later. He sits across from Shuichi and Harumaki to listen to the latter tell tales of her childhood. As she talks, he can’t help but focus on the hushed cadence of her voice, and the way the moonlight glints off of her crimson eyes.

Harumaki is not Kaito’s idea of a perfect girl-after living in this killing game and seeing so many girls at their best and worst, he is beginning to wonder if his idea of a perfect girl ever even existed. Harumaki is perfectly imperfect. She is antisocial and stubborn and intelligent, and Kaito loves every part of it. He loves her death glares-which have grown much softer since they started training-and her witty comebacks-which have gone from death threats to playful jabs-and her deadpan attitude-which has shifted to a way to keep people calm in times of panic. 

Most of all, Kaito loves the way she let herself grow. When Kaito offered her the chance to come out of her shell and connect with friends, she took the opportunity with little resistance. She never wanted to be an assassin, and she isn’t letting that role define her anymore. Maki isn’t perfect-far from it-but she is willing to let herself change for the better, and that’s what Kaito admires about her.

~

Iruma’s corpse lies in a chair in a twisted position and Gonta burns on a stake. Kaito collapses in Harumaki’s arms and blood dribbles down his chin. Saihara tries to help but Kaito staggers away, unwilling to interact with this person who led Gonta to his death. Deep down, he knows that Saihara didn’t have any choice and that they’d all be dead if Kaito had his way, but he still ignores Saihara calling after him.

Harumaki sprints up to him just as the elevator door is about to close. The ride up and the walk back to the dorms are silent, save Kaito’s labored breaths and stumbling steps. He thinks that Harumaki probably wants him to make up with Saihara, but she doesn’t say anything. She just studies him with her beautiful red eyes.

For the first time ever, Kaito wishes that Harumaki isn’t with him. He doesn’t want her to see him like this-sick and angry and about to burst with stress and grief. He is supposed to be noble and brave and strong, and yet here he is, walking alongside the girl he loves and not even daring to tell her and fuming over a petty grudge against a friend who had no choice in his actions.

When he reaches his room, Kaito turns to tell Harumaki goodnight. She just stars at him for a few seconds and quietly leaves. Kaito cleans up and sits on his bed with his face in his hands for a long time.

~

He asks to see Harumaki in her research lab. Officially, he is there to inspect the weapons they have at their disposal to lead an uprising against Monokuma. Secretly, he also hopes to finally confess his feelings, like a real man should. 

Saihara is there. Never mind.

~

He plans to fight Monokuma. They’ll defeat that psychotic bear once and for all and they’ll finally leave this school. He can save whatever confession he has for Harumaki for after that. After all, he has to protect everyone first. Romantic feelings aren’t important right now.

~

Oma has locked him in the bathroom of the Exisal hangar. After days of waiting, Shuichi comes by and promises to come with reinforcements the next morning. Harukawa, he says, is planning to lead the rest of the class to save him.

A few hours later, Kaito asks Himiko to bring him a crossbow. He doesn’t plan to sit there and wait for Harumaki to come rescue him. A real man should protect the girl he loves-not the other way around.

~

Harukawa aims her second poisoned arrow at Oma’s throat. Kaito isn’t sure if it’s bile or blood rising in his throat. He thought she’d rejected her job as an assassin by now. He can’t let her kill. He can’t let Oma die.

Almost without thinking, Kaito blocks the arrow with his arm. Harumaki gasps and bolts out of the hangar. Breathing hard, Oma fumbles with the controls and closes the shutters. Harumaki’s voice calls out from the window of the bathroom a few minutes later, and Kaito staggers to the bathroom in time to see a small bottle drop through the window.

Before he can react, Oma picks up the bottle and brings it to his lips. Harumaki pleads for him not to-there was only one bottle. Oma gives her a smug grin and tells her that he is going to start another class trial. Kaito tries to assure her-to assure himself-that he isn’t going to die, but he realizes halfway that it’s pointless.

He is going to die. Kaito considers telling Harumaki that he loves her, but decides against it. What use would that do now? It would only cause her pain to know that she killed a man that loved her.

He tells her to run and live. Harumaki has to live. Kaito’s heart sinks when he realizes that he wants her to live. If he is given a choice between Maki surviving and the rest of the class-even Shuichi-he would choose Maki. He is willing to sacrifice the lives of four innocent friends for a girl he loved. What kind of man was he?

~

Oma is not the mastermind after all. He offers Kaito and alternative: to kill him and replace Harumaki as the blackened. If Kaito can kill Oma before he dies of Harumaki’s poison, he will become the blackened instead, and Harumaki and the rest of his friends will be safe.

Oma wants him to do something different. He says that if Kaito managed to convince Monokuma that Oma was the blackened, he would be able to question the legitimacy of the game and maybe find a loophole for everyone-even him-to escape through. 

Even with the poison in his system cured, Kaito is still slowly dying. Oma is dying, too, at a slightly faster rate. Wouldn’t it be great, Oma says, for two dying men such as themselves to finally do something meaningful with their lives?

It seems like a nice thought, but Kaito knows Shuichi’s deduction skills. He would figure out their plan and condemn Kaito. He doesn’t comment on this to Oma, however. He is already dying slowly of poison. The hydraulic press would be a mercy kill. There is no use in telling him that his plan is one doomed to fail when he doesn’t have any other choices.

Kaito lets the hydraulic press fall on Oma’s small body. Blood spatters the floor. He flushes Oma’s shirt in the toilet and collapses into an Exisal. There is no turning back. He is going to protect Harumaki and Shuichi and all the others, just like a real man would.

~

“I’ve never…fallen for someone before,” Harumaki whispers, tears dripping down her cheek.

Against all odds, Kaito doesn’t fall over. He stops wiping the blood off his chin and stares at her, dumbfounded. So Harumaki does return his feelings, then. Kaito wants to slap himself for not saying anything sooner. And now what? Can he really tell Harumaki that he is in love with her too? Can he really tell her and leave her drowning in grief when he drowns in blood, wondering about what could have been had she spoken up sooner, like he is wondering right now?

“W-wow, Harumaki,” Kaito says, cringing at how weak his voice sounds, “you fell for a guy like me? Now you can learn to like yourself!”  
Harumaki doesn’t give him an answer. She just drops the knife in her hand and starts sobbing. Kaito tentatively reaches out and puts a hand on her shoulder.

“Hey,” he says gently, “Don’t cry. Can’t you send me off with one last smile?” Maki shakily puts her hand over his, and the tingle it sends up Kaito’s arm is almost enough to convince him that he is going to survive the next hour. This will have to be enough. If Harumaki can give him one last smile for him to remember when he dies, that will have to be the most he can take.

Harumaki is too upset to smile. Instead, Kaito gives her a smile and tries to cheer her up. Maybe Harumaki will find the comfort that Kaito cannot-in the last smile of the person she loves given to her right before they are parted forever.

~

Kaito is shoved into a rocket and sent into the earth. The world around him grows almost unbearably hot before cooling down. Figures. Monokuma wouldn’t let him die before the end of his execution. Kaito feels his lungs filling with blood and smiles.

Harumaki is alive. Shuichi is alive. Yumeno, Shirogane, and Kibo are all still alive. Kaito knows that his friend will win this game-he believes in them. This class trial has gotten them one step closer to finding the mastermind. Kaito couldn’t protect all fifteen of his classmates, but he’d protected the five who remained until the end, just like a real man.

~

The stars are so beautiful in the night sky.

**Author's Note:**

> *sobs* i ship them so much...


End file.
